All Grown Up (part 1/3)
anonymous
June 5 2009, 23:57:55 UTC
Once upon a time, there were two families, the Kirklands and the Joneses. They lived on the same street, with houses facing each other. The Kirklands were British diplomats working for the British Embassy in Washington, DC. Mr. Jones (if that was his real name, they joked to each other) worked for the CIA - "A simple analyst," he told people - Mrs. Jones worked for a Senator who had been in Washington for so long he was considered more a fixture than the Washington monument. The Kirklands and the Joneses moved in similar circles, ran into each other at work, had similar interests; it was no surprise when they ended up becoming friends.
When Mrs. Kirkland and Mrs. Jones had their children only a year apart, they completely expected them to be friends, friends as their parents were. They had not predicted the closeness that would spring up between the two.
Alfred F. Jones was born two months premature, a difficult childbirth that had nearly slain both mother and child and had required copious and skilled medical intervention to prevent such tragedy from occurring. Mr. Jones relied heavily on the Kirklands' support while his wife and newborn son lay in hospital, and the ordeal was the firm seal on a deep friendship between the two families.
Alfred's early childhood was a delicate time. He was small, undergrown - weak, prone to illness and injury. Igraine Kirkland, his one-year-older neighbor, appointed herself his guardian, and watched over her much frailer charge with the ferocious protectiveness of a lioness. She haunted his steps, constantly hovering to catch him lest he fall, carried bandages around for when he fell and wounded himself, sang to him to comfort him, pushed him on the swings (but never too hard or too fast). She regarded all other children with bristling suspicion and was quick to avenge any bullying perpetrated on the tiny, cherubic Alfred - she was as feared as Alfred was not.
In return, Alfred adored his "Iggy", worshipping her completely and utterly. It was easy for her to keep an eye on him, because he never strayed far from her side. He cheered her on indiscriminately whenever she began to scrap with other children, (she was a contentious little girl) and was always a willing audience and side-actor to her own made-up stories and fancies and plays. He cheerfully ate anything she 'made' him, even - to their mothers' horror - mudpies and blackened pine cones toasted over campfires that were her play 'cooking'. Iggy's slightest command was as holy writ to him, unbreakable even by his parents. ("Noooo, I cn't hab Fwench fwies, mommy. Iggy said the Fwench are bad. ...but c'n I has cheeseburger?")
He wept copiously everytime Iggy went off somewhere without him; he was a jealous little thing. He had thwacked his cousin Matthew - visiting from Canada - when he thought Iggy was paying too much attention to him. And every time Iggy went to Europe with her parents - they had trips at least yearly - he cried and begged her to stay.
She never did, but she always brought him back souveneirs. Alfred, in particular, treasured a set of wooden toy soldiers she'd brought back one trip, hand-made and painted in bright colors, each one different.
Still, he'd rather she not go at all.
Iggy enjoyed the trips to Europe, but always enjoyed coming back home again - and seeing Alfred race down the street when he saw their car coming, little face alight, ready to tackle her in a tight hug as soon as she stepped down. It always made her parents chuckle too.
And she kept looking for little Alfred as they came back home from their latest jaunt to Europe, wondering what he'd think of the set of clothes she'd chosen - all by herself! - for him. His parents had sent his measurements, and they'd had it tailored at Savile Row....she'd chosen the colors and the styling and...
Who was that tall boy pounding at the window? Tall, blond, blue-eyes - oddly familiar - shirtless and in cut-off denim shorts, sweaty, with a basketball tucked under his arm, and he was yelling her name with a bright smile, the brightest smile ever, that special smile that...only...belonged to....
Re: All Grown Up (part 1/3)
anonymous
June 6 2009, 00:10:59 UTC
Little Alfred and Iggy are adorable.
Author!Anon of first fill concedes defeat.
It will be interesting to see how Iggy will react to "little Alfred" suddenly turning into a smexy teenage boy. probably how boy England actually reacted in the orignal strip.
Re: All Grown Up (part 1/3)
anonymous
June 6 2009, 04:15:53 UTC
No way! They're different takes, and it's apples and oranges. I'd never have done this if it weren't for loving yours. And I'm really glad you like mine because of that. Also, you called it!
All Grown Up (part 2a/3)
anonymous
June 6 2009, 04:07:45 UTC
Alfred F. Jones was reborn. No one could believe it. An incredible growth spurt coincided with a new-found passion for sports. The delicate little angel had become a loud, rowdy, bully-thrashing, homerun-hitting, footrace-winning, mischief-making scrapper. Mr. Kirkland, who was prone to doing that sort of thing, pored over every anecdote Alfred's startled but pleased parents could produce, and concluded that a) the Redskins game Mr. Jones had taken his son to had given Alfred sports heroes to emulate - he cited the posters now on Alfred's bedroom wall;
b) Matthew, with whom Alfred was violently competitive, had joined a junior hockey league "up in the Great White North" and Alfred felt the need to join something too. Not hockey, but baseball, of course - "You are so stereotypically American it's hilarious," he told Alfred, who beamed at his 'uncle' Albion. (The running joke was that Alfred had been named after Iggy's father, in a way.)
c) without Iggy there, Alfred had actually begun to play with the other boys. Without Iggy there, he'd also actually had to face their bullying himself; with his growth spurt, he had actually been able to do so the same way Iggy had, through violent reprisals.
Alfred had shot up so drastically that his parents had actually brought him to a doctor, and he had to take calcium supplements. He'd been exactly as tall as Iggy when she came back - a month later, he was unmistakeably taller. He was tanned from playing out in the sun. He was confident, healthy, and popular.
He didn't need Iggy anymore.
***
Much as Iggy had feared, they began to drift apart. Iggy had absolutely no patience for baseball in the first place, and even less for the loud, uncouth boys who were teaching her little Alfie profanity and that the most important thing in the world was batting averages, and to be ashamed of playing house with her... they made him ashamed of her!
Alfred began to resent the way she hovered; Iggy knew that he no longer needed her to fix any mess he got into, but it was so hard to break the habit of a lifetime...
She missed him. She missed the tiny cute Alfred who had not only followed where she led, but who had wanted to...this new one kept running off, to baseball, to fight, to play dangerous games, he kept running off and leaving her behind.
***
- Albion is the oldest known name for the island of Great Britain.
All Grown Up (part 2b/3)
anonymous
June 6 2009, 04:14:31 UTC
Iggy attended the prestigious International Academy, which catered to the children of high-ranking diplomats. She'd gotten into the secondary school program on an academic scholarship. Her parents had beamed for a whole week, and the Joneses had taken them out to celebrate. She had soon gained a reputation as a 'brain', a responsible, organized, steady hand mature beyond her years. She ranked top of her class in every subject; and in her second year she became the youngest Secretary ever elected to the Student Council.
Her second year was also when Alfred entered the International Academy himself, also on a full scholarship, this one for sports. His reputation was made as quickly as Iggy's had been - a wisecracking jock, as quick to fight as to forgive, always to be counted upon for a class-disrupting joke or prank. He should have been hated by the teachers, but he had a wide smile and a boyish charm that somehow always swayed them to his side, and him away from trouble (or, at least, too much trouble.) They did not trust him, but they could not help but like him.
Iggy was disgusted to find several of her classmates openly squealing about their underclassman, going on about his 'dreamy eyes' and 'oooh that smile' and 'I just want to touch that hair....that cowlick! Isn't it cute?' She was even more disgusted to find some third-year girls also eying the tall baseball player with speculative eyes.
She was most disgusted to find herself agreeing with some of their sentiments; but it was worse, because there was something to it beyond a shallow infatuation based on good looks and sports prowess - she was beginning to fear she still loved the irritating, traitorous little brat.
***
Alfred was a jock and Iggy was a brain; they were, therefore, natural and eternal enemies. He would lead his yelling, rough-housing teammates in a frantic stampede down the halls; Iggy would furiously push through new student by-laws to regulate their behavior. Alfred would blatantly ignore those rulings; Iggy would make sure he was punished by it. She ended up assigning him more detentions than any teacher did.
She usually presided over those detentions herself; letting him in regular detention, with all the other troublemakers, only meant that he would overwhelm whatever poor teacher was there. She would use this opportunity to lecture him on his many sins, and demand he do his homework. Alfred would jeer back at her, do his homework - if it was English, he'd show it to Iggy just to make her sob in rage at what he'd done to her beloved language; if it was science or math, he'd show it to her just to irritate her because of his inexplicable ease with the subjects; and if it was anything else, he'd show it to her to display the odd scribbles he put all over the papers.
She usually ended up forcing him to revise, hovering over him just to make sure he 'did it right'. (As a result, Alfred had good grades, a shameful fact he hid from his teammates lest it destroy his reputation. Iggy would yell at him for this too)
They had to put up with each other at home, too; the Kirklands and the Joneses were still very close. They had dinner at each other's houses at least once a week. They bickered, of course; but their parents only smiled fondly at the sniping. They referred to Alfred`s detentions as their `study sessions`.
***
Alfred entered his second year, and Iggy her third. Iggy was now School Council President, the youngest one ever. Alfred had become the youngest ever captain of the baseball team, as well as an alternate on the track and basketball teams. Their parents were both very proud of them.
A strange coincidence occurred in that year; both Alfred and Iggy found new transfer students in their classes, ones they knew. For Alfred, it was his cousin Matthew, who still looked uncannily like him - much to his dismay, as he was forever being mistaken for his much louder, rowdier cousin.
Iggy, meanwhile, was a bit surprised to find an old friend from Europe in her class. His name was Francis Bonnefoy.
***
- Alfred's talent with science and math is based on how, in canon, they seem to be showing him as a bit of a genius ditz - good with planes and computers. And, as we all know, dense about most everything else. Or is he
When Mrs. Kirkland and Mrs. Jones had their children only a year apart, they completely expected them to be friends, friends as their parents were. They had not predicted the closeness that would spring up between the two.
Alfred F. Jones was born two months premature, a difficult childbirth that had nearly slain both mother and child and had required copious and skilled medical intervention to prevent such tragedy from occurring. Mr. Jones relied heavily on the Kirklands' support while his wife and newborn son lay in hospital, and the ordeal was the firm seal on a deep friendship between the two families.
Alfred's early childhood was a delicate time. He was small, undergrown - weak, prone to illness and injury. Igraine Kirkland, his one-year-older neighbor, appointed herself his guardian, and watched over her much frailer charge with the ferocious protectiveness of a lioness. She haunted his steps, constantly hovering to catch him lest he fall, carried bandages around for when he fell and wounded himself, sang to him to comfort him, pushed him on the swings (but never too hard or too fast). She regarded all other children with bristling suspicion and was quick to avenge any bullying perpetrated on the tiny, cherubic Alfred - she was as feared as Alfred was not.
In return, Alfred adored his "Iggy", worshipping her completely and utterly. It was easy for her to keep an eye on him, because he never strayed far from her side. He cheered her on indiscriminately whenever she began to scrap with other children, (she was a contentious little girl) and was always a willing audience and side-actor to her own made-up stories and fancies and plays. He cheerfully ate anything she 'made' him, even - to their mothers' horror - mudpies and blackened pine cones toasted over campfires that were her play 'cooking'. Iggy's slightest command was as holy writ to him, unbreakable even by his parents. ("Noooo, I cn't hab Fwench fwies, mommy. Iggy said the Fwench are bad. ...but c'n I has cheeseburger?")
He wept copiously everytime Iggy went off somewhere without him; he was a jealous little thing. He had thwacked his cousin Matthew - visiting from Canada - when he thought Iggy was paying too much attention to him. And every time Iggy went to Europe with her parents - they had trips at least yearly - he cried and begged her to stay.
She never did, but she always brought him back souveneirs. Alfred, in particular, treasured a set of wooden toy soldiers she'd brought back one trip, hand-made and painted in bright colors, each one different.
Still, he'd rather she not go at all.
Iggy enjoyed the trips to Europe, but always enjoyed coming back home again - and seeing Alfred race down the street when he saw their car coming, little face alight, ready to tackle her in a tight hug as soon as she stepped down. It always made her parents chuckle too.
And she kept looking for little Alfred as they came back home from their latest jaunt to Europe, wondering what he'd think of the set of clothes she'd chosen - all by herself! - for him. His parents had sent his measurements, and they'd had it tailored at Savile Row....she'd chosen the colors and the styling and...
Who was that tall boy pounding at the window? Tall, blond, blue-eyes - oddly familiar - shirtless and in cut-off denim shorts, sweaty, with a basketball tucked under his arm, and he was yelling her name with a bright smile, the brightest smile ever, that special smile that...only...belonged to....
"ALFRED?!"
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Author!Anon of first fill concedes defeat.
It will be interesting to see how Iggy will react to "little Alfred" suddenly turning into a smexy teenage boy. probably how boy England actually reacted in the orignal strip.
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This is just perfect! I like the name you picked out for Fem!England, I love the set-up (and oh, mama bear Iggy!).
and ILU. ♥
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And now I cannot wait for the next part and the ensuing denial!attraction.
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b) Matthew, with whom Alfred was violently competitive, had joined a junior hockey league "up in the Great White North" and Alfred felt the need to join something too. Not hockey, but baseball, of course - "You are so stereotypically American it's hilarious," he told Alfred, who beamed at his 'uncle' Albion. (The running joke was that Alfred had been named after Iggy's father, in a way.)
c) without Iggy there, Alfred had actually begun to play with the other boys. Without Iggy there, he'd also actually had to face their bullying himself; with his growth spurt, he had actually been able to do so the same way Iggy had, through violent reprisals.
Alfred had shot up so drastically that his parents had actually brought him to a doctor, and he had to take calcium supplements. He'd been exactly as tall as Iggy when she came back - a month later, he was unmistakeably taller. He was tanned from playing out in the sun. He was confident, healthy, and popular.
He didn't need Iggy anymore.
***
Much as Iggy had feared, they began to drift apart. Iggy had absolutely no patience for baseball in the first place, and even less for the loud, uncouth boys who were teaching her little Alfie profanity and that the most important thing in the world was batting averages, and to be ashamed of playing house with her... they made him ashamed of her!
Alfred began to resent the way she hovered; Iggy knew that he no longer needed her to fix any mess he got into, but it was so hard to break the habit of a lifetime...
She missed him. She missed the tiny cute Alfred who had not only followed where she led, but who had wanted to...this new one kept running off, to baseball, to fight, to play dangerous games, he kept running off and leaving her behind.
***
- Albion is the oldest known name for the island of Great Britain.
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Her second year was also when Alfred entered the International Academy himself, also on a full scholarship, this one for sports. His reputation was made as quickly as Iggy's had been - a wisecracking jock, as quick to fight as to forgive, always to be counted upon for a class-disrupting joke or prank. He should have been hated by the teachers, but he had a wide smile and a boyish charm that somehow always swayed them to his side, and him away from trouble (or, at least, too much trouble.) They did not trust him, but they could not help but like him.
Iggy was disgusted to find several of her classmates openly squealing about their underclassman, going on about his 'dreamy eyes' and 'oooh that smile' and 'I just want to touch that hair....that cowlick! Isn't it cute?' She was even more disgusted to find some third-year girls also eying the tall baseball player with speculative eyes.
She was most disgusted to find herself agreeing with some of their sentiments; but it was worse, because there was something to it beyond a shallow infatuation based on good looks and sports prowess - she was beginning to fear she still loved the irritating, traitorous little brat.
***
Alfred was a jock and Iggy was a brain; they were, therefore, natural and eternal enemies. He would lead his yelling, rough-housing teammates in a frantic stampede down the halls; Iggy would furiously push through new student by-laws to regulate their behavior. Alfred would blatantly ignore those rulings; Iggy would make sure he was punished by it. She ended up assigning him more detentions than any teacher did.
She usually presided over those detentions herself; letting him in regular detention, with all the other troublemakers, only meant that he would overwhelm whatever poor teacher was there. She would use this opportunity to lecture him on his many sins, and demand he do his homework. Alfred would jeer back at her, do his homework - if it was English, he'd show it to Iggy just to make her sob in rage at what he'd done to her beloved language; if it was science or math, he'd show it to her just to irritate her because of his inexplicable ease with the subjects; and if it was anything else, he'd show it to her to display the odd scribbles he put all over the papers.
She usually ended up forcing him to revise, hovering over him just to make sure he 'did it right'. (As a result, Alfred had good grades, a shameful fact he hid from his teammates lest it destroy his reputation. Iggy would yell at him for this too)
They had to put up with each other at home, too; the Kirklands and the Joneses were still very close. They had dinner at each other's houses at least once a week. They bickered, of course; but their parents only smiled fondly at the sniping. They referred to Alfred`s detentions as their `study sessions`.
***
Alfred entered his second year, and Iggy her third. Iggy was now School Council President, the youngest one ever. Alfred had become the youngest ever captain of the baseball team, as well as an alternate on the track and basketball teams. Their parents were both very proud of them.
A strange coincidence occurred in that year; both Alfred and Iggy found new transfer students in their classes, ones they knew. For Alfred, it was his cousin Matthew, who still looked uncannily like him - much to his dismay, as he was forever being mistaken for his much louder, rowdier cousin.
Iggy, meanwhile, was a bit surprised to find an old friend from Europe in her class. His name was Francis Bonnefoy.
***
- Alfred's talent with science and math is based on how, in canon, they seem to be showing him as a bit of a genius ditz - good with planes and computers. And, as we all know, dense about most everything else. Or is he
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i can't wait for more of this.
ESPECIALLY-
Iggy, meanwhile, was a bit surprised to find an old friend from Europe in her class. His name was Francis Bonnefoy.
kdjhfkjdshfkesf francis francis fraaannnciiis. oh alfred, whatcha gunna doooo.
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My heart broke on that one sentence: He didn't need Iggy anymore.
*cries*
And Albion as Iggy's father was just great.
And Francis! dun dun DUUUN. ♥
reCAPTCHA says: nordics chase. WAT
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Their childhood was adorable and now. Now they're all grown up and...
And F5ing anon.
Love that your Alfred is good at Science and Math, btw.
HAHAA. I LOVE HOW THE FIRST THOUGHT IN MY HEAD AFTER READING THE LAST LINE WAS FRUK.
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Still really, really good. Excited for Francis to show up, because he always brings lols and drama.
That's true, he is pretty techy. Alfred isn't probably as dense as he looks, since he generally able to get what he wants from Kiku and Arthur.
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F5F5F5F5F5F5F5F5F5F5
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